Info/expo: research document

Info expo

Contents Introduction

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Theme

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Research

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Concept

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Storyboard

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Visuals

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Feedback

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Iteration

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Main Frames

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Evaluation

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Project: Info/expo BA (Hons) Graphic and Media Design London College of Communication // University of the Arts London Sophia Tai (TAI13396142), 2014.

Introduction In this documentation you will read about my first year project: Info/ expo. The aim of this project is the exploration and understanding of information design. According to the brief, a theme (time, sound, light, touch, emotion) and a mode of enquiry (historical, scientific, cultural, personal) will determine the research process and the final outcome. The format is unrestricted; it can be printed, screen-based or interactive/3D.

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Theme I have chosen light as my theme and science as the mode of enquiry. First I started doing broad research(1-3) about the scientific interpretations of light, looking to narrow it down to a more specific theme.

From looking up all natural and artificial lightsources to the physics of light and the structure of a lightbulb, I spent a few days exploring the theme.

I ended up looking at light’s effect on plants and humans and started my primary research(4), but soon realised it started turning into a personal theme.

Coming back to science, I continued my search amon physics, chemistry and biology.

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The subjects tend to be taught separately in secondary schools, which means the science of light is not understood as a complete subject. This gave me the final hint to my chosen theme.

The audience will be students in their secondary education and their teachers. My aim is to merge notions of light through these three scientific subjects and help students understand the connection between them. With this, science will feel closer to everyday life and hopefully this will give students more interest as well as new knowledge.

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1-3. secondary research; Exploration of light in science.

4. primary research; Visuals of light interference in artificial light.

Experiencing mood changes with different light sources.

1. Visible wavelengths to the human eye.

2. Dispersion and refraction.

3. Natural and artificial light sources.

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Research 1

It is not only important to do research about the subject itself, but also to examine infographics.

My main source of information was Information is Beautiful by David McCandles(1). A book, which collects several types of infographics created with the same graphic style.

I have also looked at many infographics created about light(3). By examining these, I have discovered the already existing themes, which include LED lamps, light bulb comparisons, light pollution and energy efficiency. Avoinding these themes would help create something more useful, as copying something that has

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already been made would only be redundant work.

Looking up infographics about light also gave me the chance to see the relevant key elements collected into a single place. In one of our workshops we were given the task to examine basic iconic elements in infographics that are relevant to our theme

and then create original, modern versions of the same representations(2).

While looking for infographics I also stumbled upon a music video(4) which is a series of infographics packed into a story.

This became my main inspiration and I decided to give my infographic a story.

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1. Information is Beautiful by David McCandles. My main research element in infographics.

2. Sketches representing icons for the infographics. Created in one of the workshops.

3. Infographics relevant to light.

4. Screenshot from music video; Remind me by Rรถyksopp. Main inspiration for this project.

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Continuing my research into scientific light, I dug deeper into the world of chemistry, biology and physics and specific elements to include in my information design. Starting with how light is born from within our biggest source, the Sun, to colours visible to the human eye, and how our eyes receive light and how the brain interprets it, I have collected many infographics and articles that explain their structure and how these things work(1-6).

As I spent a part of my easter holiday in the Netherlands, I had a chance to visit the Philips Museum in Eindhoven and gained a great amount of knowledge 10 about light’s significance. The

museum did not only show how the lightbulb was invented, but also emphasized times before artificial light existed and how far it has stretched now, to the television in our everyday lives and x-ray machines in hospitals.

Above: Photo of the Philips Museum in Eindhoven; my research about light’s relevance.

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1-6. The most important research elements that were used for the project.

1. Nuclear fusion in Sun 2. Sunlight in Earth’s atmosphere 3. Light interacts with water 4. Structure of the eyeball 5. Rods and cones in retina 6. Visual function in brain.

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Concept

As I chose a music video to be my main inspiration, I decided on a story that would connect scientific subjects through infographics.

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The story will be light’s life and show its path in our world.

Starting with how light is born

through nuclear fusion in the Sun to entering Earth and then the human body, to its artificial recreation.

It starts with darkness and ends with darkness, but the story will be lit. Connecting chemistry with physics, biology and finally with technology is its purpose.

Below: Pages from my sketchbook; storyboard roughly sketched out.

After quickly sketching down my story I had three ideas in mind for the format. The first idea was a comic strip, perhaps animated, like my favourite Google-doodle: 107th Anniversary of Little Nemo in Slumberland, which is interactive as well. The second idea was a stop-motion animation

for screen and third a poster with all infographics merged into one big image. I was warned to avoid the last idea, as it would be too busy and inappropriate for a poster, and encouraged to continue on creating the animation with some very useful references.

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For visuals I want to go with a simple, geometric style, while using a range of specific colours.

When looking for minimalistic styles, I went back to screenbased design and mainly attempted to mimic the old windows XP style excluding the pixely attributes. Also, because my audience would be students, I tried to fit in the style school books usually have.

When showing my proposal in class, tutors were not convinced and adviced me to do research on styles and try to push this one to its limits and make it more distinguishable. It also needs to be more consistent and have more repetition with elements.

I decided to stick to this style and improve it as this is a bigger challenge to me, than starting all over again.

Left: First visuals created in a simple and geometric style, finished in sketch; the frames are shaped and placed to make a comic.

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Storyboard When receiving feedback my attention was brought to a book that was of great help to me: Making Comics by Scott McCloud.

I had to improve the pace and frequency of my frames, as well as adding more detail.

Books like The Art of the storyboard by John Hart and The

Right: Making Comics: storytelling secrets of comics, manga and visual novels by Scott McCloud. A valuable book in my exploration and research about storyboarding.

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Storyboard Design Course by Giuseppe Christiano also deeply helped me with my research in storyboards.

I learned how one frame can change the meaning of a whole story and how to show details of a happening. With my new set of knowledge I recreated the storyboard.

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1. The Art of the storyboard: a filmmaker’s introduction by John Hart 2. The Storyboard design course: the ultimate guide for artists, directors, producers and scriptwriters by Giuseppe Cristiano Right: New storyboard sketch scanned from my sketchbook.

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Visuals Seeing that there were some problems concerning the visual style of my story, I needed to do some research that would help me form the final look.

Firstly I went back to reduced styles, such as pixel art (1-3).

The main element in this artform is trying to reduce the number of colours in order to make the style more consistent and efficient. As there are many restrictions in this category, the images come to be very unique in many different ways.

Interesting shapes and bright

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colours were what caught my attention.

So I decided to use only a limited amount of colours, repeating them as many places as I could, but by choosing the colours carefully I would go for bold and bright (4-5). It perfectly fits the screen-based form and also makes the visuals more appealing.

To narrow it down even more, I started off with the most basic colours, like black, white, redgreen-blue, and only added unique colours when really needed, for example: skin colour, which I also tried to incorporate in as many frames as possible.

I haven’t found as much inspiration(6) regarding style as I had hoped, so I chose to stick to the most basic geometric shapes.

1. Chickenbreasts by Sophia Tai (me); pixel art with a palette of 9 colours.

2. Buildings poster by eBoy; isometric pixel art 3. CGA Faces by Sven Ruthner; 17 colours 4. Primary colours in screen and print.

5. Smile for London logo.

6. International Year of Chemistry poster

by Simon C Page

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Feedback My first feedback suggested me to clarify some aspects of the infographic. I changed some of the transitions and added more frames. It created a more smooth and clear animation.

seconds for each frame, which I then changed to 0.2. But after that the aimation was going too quickly at just some parts, so now it slows down for 0.5 or 1 second/frame for the frames that have text to read or contain more important momentums.

I’ve also received feedback on the timing of this stop-motion. First it was going too slowly with 0.5

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Iteration ?

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Main frames

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Evaluation In the beginning of this project I was in doubt as the tutors weren’t impressed what I showed in class, but I was encouraged and books were recommended to me. After doing more research I finally had some inspiration to come up with the final concept and design.

My main idea was a story about light, which in its journey, connects several sciences. For it being a story, I had the chance to learn more about comics and storyboarding. I also learnt about many types of infographics and created my first stop-motion animation. Originally, I had planned to reduce the length of the story, but by the end I had the chance to show both the creation and recreation of life in this story. I wouldn’t have pushed so far without the support of my tutors. I definitely look forward to doing more infographics in the future.

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